Field Trips

We are planning to have two days of field trips. They will be held on Thursday and Friday, September 25 and 26 (the first two days of SandFest). There will be two general themes to the locations:

Lake Ontario has multiple beaches with variable sand. We will visit at least two that are within an hour of the Sterling Nature Center. 

Inland, the topography and the sedimentation in western New York are dominated by glacial deposits left behind when continental glaciation retreated about 10,000 years ago. There is sand associated with glacial moraines, eskers, outwash plains, glacial rivers, and dunes.  This has been exposed in quarries, parks, and along the shoreline. We will as many locations as time permits and sand will be available from others that are too far distant to visit during the event.

Sterling Nature Center and nearby Chimney Bluffs State Park are drumlins, offering spectacular views, sunsets, and – of course – sand! 

SandFest 2022 Field Trip in Oregon, USA | Photo by Hans Zimmerman

Day One Field Trips

We will visit at least two Lake Ontario beach locations on Thursday, September 25th, after holding a Meet and Greet session at the venue.

The first will be the beach at the Sterling Nature Center. In addition to the sand beach, this location also exposes glacial sediments internal to both drumlin and kame deposits more than 10,000 years old.

After lunch, we will travel to Chimney Bluffs State Park to examine the large spires and cliffs exposed by the truncation of a large drumlin along Lake Ontario’s shoreline. This feature can be observed from the shoreline and from the bluffs above. On a clear day (and we are trying to plan that also), this is a spectaular setting.

We plan to be back to the venue in mid-afternoon for the first of several trading sessions.